♪ ♪ >> they say it is going to be difficult. >> norah: tonight, the race to escape hurricane milton, as the storm is expected to double in size before landfall. >> you didn't evacuate for helene, but you are doing it this time? >> indeed, definitely. i'm gone. it's over. >> norah: breaking news: the bombshell claims.

what a new book reveals about donald trump's secret phone calls with vladimir putin, as we learn what president biden is saying privately about israel's prime minister. >> all of a sudden, they just were multiplying overnight. >> norah: and tonight's "eye on america," with just four weeks to go to election day, could these blue and red dots be a sign of the times? >> maybe it fits nebraska nice. >> norah: the "cbs evening news" starts now. ♪ ♪ good evening. i'm norah o'donnell, and thank you for joining us. we have new information from the national hurricane center about milton's growing strength and its changing path. millions are bracing for life-threatening impacts as the storm has reintensified to a monster category 5, with winds howling at 165 miles per hour. now milton is expected to make landfall on florida's central gulf coast before dawn on thursday, potentially as a category 3 hurricane.

the storm is so powerful, even the government's hurricane hunters got bumped around as they rode into the heart of milton today. president biden has already approved an emergency declaration for florida ahead of the landfall. we have several reporters in the tampa area as it prepares for what could be its worst storm in a century. cbs's lonnie quinn is going to start us off with the very latest on milton's path. >> good evening, norah. and you are right, there have been some very modest changes from when you and i were talking last night. number one, the storm went through an eye wall replacement cycle as it was sort of skirting the northern fringes of the yucatan peninsula, so it did lose some strength and went down to a cat 4. it's back now in the warm waters of the gulf, back to a category 5, like you were talking about. as far as landfall, landfall we still see it in and around tampa, but it's now a little bit to the south of tampa. i'm talking a little bit, but it only takes a little bit to affect the storm surge numbers. we'll hear more about that a bit later. let me show you what the storm looks like right now from high up in space. get the lay of the land. take a peek at where florida and

the gulf is, and now let's put the storm on top of all of this. all right, it almost fills up the entire gulf of mexico. and the signature of rainfall, i'm going to give you a future projection of how this is going to work out, you will very easily see the eye as it pushes towards tampa. notice there is your eye, the heaviest rain is on the northern side of it, northern side of the eye wall picks up the biggest rain, biggest fresh water flooding possibly a foot of rain. south, very small numbers for rainfall, but you would see the biggest storm surge. the only good news i have to really share about the whole thing is it pushes into the atlantic. this does not go to the carolinas. it will not exacerbate that problem. this is a storm solely for the state of florida. we are keeping all eyes on this huge storm. norah? >> norah: lonnie quinn with that new track, thank you very much. the mayor of tampa has a blunt warning: you are going to die if you can't evacuate. let's get now to our correspondents in the storm zone, beginning with cbs's jonathan vigliotti. good evening, jonathan. >> reporter: good evening to you, norah. this community was busy cleaning

up after one hurricane when it had to drop everything and evacuate due to another one. you are looking at the contents of people's homes, stacked up several stories high, easily thousands of similar, smaller piles scattered across the city. as milton approaches, one of the big concerns, the extreme wind turning all of this debris into projectiles. tampa area streets are lined with miles of potentially deadly debris. the goal, according to tampa's mayor, was to have most of it cleared by today. >> the federal government, the state government are working hand-in-hand, first and foremost to get that household debris up and out of the way. >> reporter: the city fell short. now hurricane milton is menacing the coast, just more than a week after helene decimated it. >> i'm praying that we won't be put to the test. >> reporter: eurydice stanley rode out helene in her tampa area home but evacuated to tallahassee monday when milton exploded to a category 5. >> people are staying at home,

but these storms are different. ask the citizens of asheville, north carolina. >> reporter: millions of people in the tampa area are under a mandatory evacuation. many have left, but some aren't going anywhere. cbs's nicole valdes is on sanibel island with one of them. bridgit budd says she is staying. >> there's just no place i would rather be. you know, i don't suggest it for anybody. i don't -- i'm not promoting it. >> reporter: i'm rob marciano along the bay here in tampa where they are bracing again for a damaging and life-threatening storm surge. and if this hurricane makes a direct hit, it will take cat 3 and 4 winds and push seawater all the way up the bay, potentially pouring up to 15 feet of water right into the heart of downtown tampa. >> we are in emergency management. we got to plan for the worst things possible. >> reporter: jonathan antapasis runs the emergency operations in tampa. >> there is a lot of vulnerable infrastructure here and the geography itself that potentially puts us much more at risk. >> reporter: the exact storm

track determines where the highest storm surge happens. anything into or just north of st. pete brings winds that funnel an already high water up into the city. a track just a few miles south actually pulls the water out of the bay, leading to minimal storm surge. what's the one thing that, you know, may make you worry at night when you go to sleep? >> it's the storm surge on this one. ultimately, our first responders, we are going to be here, we are going to try to save lives, protect property first, and then we will go through that recovery process if that does happen to us. >> reporter: you know, norah, it's been over 100 years since a major hurricane has made a direct hit his now less than 50s away. the latest track does give it a chance of going just south of the bay area, but the approach of milton gives the bay area the highest risk i've ever seen of getting a direct hit. norah? >> norah: rob marciano and jonathan vigliotti in florida. thank you both for being there. and there's some breaking news that is just coming in from the justice department. a man from afghanistan living in oklahoma city on a visa is now

charged with planning an election day terrorist attack targeting large gatherings here in the u.s., and this is on behalf of isis. officials say the 27-year-old suspect was planning to sell off his family's assets to purchase ak-47 rifles and stage an attack. fbi director christopher wray says agents stopped him before anyone was hurt. tonight, a blockbuster new account of donald trump's close relationship with vladimir putin, their alleged private phone calls after trump left office, and news that trump secretly sent the russian president covid equipment. cbs's scott macfarlane has the new details. >> reporter: during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, then-president donald trump sent russian president vladimir putin covid-19 test machines, according to the new book "war" by bob woodward, who sat down with "cbs sunday morning." >> these are precious assets to anyone in the world and the country, and he gives it to him

for his personal use. >> reporter: vice president kamala harris responded today during an interview with howard stern. >> everybody was scrambling to get these kits, the tests, the covid test kits. >> couldn't get 'em. >> couldn't get 'em. couldn't get 'em anywhere. >> right. >> and this guy, who was president of the united states, is sending them to russia, to a murderous dictator, for his personal use? >> reporter: even after he left office, trump stayed in touch with the russian leader, according to woodward. he cites an unidentified trump aide who said the former president had as many as seven private calls with putin, even one early this year when trump was urging republicans to block additional aid to ukraine in its fight against russia. the newly-revealed contacts raise additional questions about trump's relationship with putin. in the recent presidential debate, trump twice refused to say who we wanted to prevail in the war with ukraine. >> do you want ukraine to win this war? >> i want the war to stop. >> reporter: the vice president told "60 minutes," trump would have allowed putin to conquer

ukraine. >> donald trump, if he were president, putin would be sitting in kyiv right now. he talks about oh, he can end it on day one. you know what that is? it's about surrender. >> reporter: woodward's book also includes tales of president biden's private frustrations with the israeli prime minister as the fighting in gaza escalated earlier this year, saying, "that son of a bitch, bibi netanyahu, he's a bad guy, he's a bad effing guy." woodward, who rose to fame investigating watergate, writes in the book trump is far worse than richard nixon. a trump spokesperson responded saying woodward's reporting is not true and that trump gave woodward absolutely no access. norah? >> norah: scott macfarlane with those new details, thank you, scott. turning now to the war in the middle east. one year ago today, israel declared war on hamas in response to the october 7th terrorist attack. the hamas-run health ministry in gaza says an estimated 42,000 palestinians have been killed.

foreign journalists cannot enter gaza on their own. cbs news relies on our producer, marwan al-ghoul, to report what's happening. cbs's elizabeth palmer has his story covering a year of war. >> i am marwan al-ghoul. was born in gaza. i am 61 years old. >> reporter: in all that time, there has never been a year as hard and heartbreaking as this one. >> not enough ambulances, just the people around, by their bare hands. >> reporter: on october 7, 2023, hamas fighters raced toward israel. hours later, israel starting bombing. the next day, marwan moved his family to a hotel for safety but kept working. he filmed this out the hotel window and understood then nothing would ever be the same. >> i looked into my wife's eyes, and we fully realized that we had to say goodbye to our

beloved city. >> reporter: marwan has since gathered 22 members of his extended family in a rented house. there is comfort in being close. [explosion] but every time a bomb lands nearby, he reads terror in his grandchildren's eyes. marwan can't get out of gaza, and i can't get in, so we spoke by phone. how angry are you, marwan? >> i'm very angry. i want to see my grandkids go to schools, go to the university, to travel. like anybody, we want to be free. >> reporter: that's the dream. this is the reality. >> everything is gone. i can't tell now. this is woman body. >> reporter: reporting on a war from deep inside it is a test of courage, especially when you're hurting. one of the air strikes that

israel says targeted hamas killed marwan's nephew and his whole family except 13-year-old maria. >> i've been working for 36 years as a journalist in gaza strip, but i have never seen such harsh war in the gaza strip. >> reporter: do you believe we'll see israel and palestine, two states, stable, in your lifetime? >> i wish i could to see the two states in my life, but i'm afraid not. >> reporter: if i had asked you that question a year ago, would you have had the same answer, marwan? >> maybe i had little hope, but now, i'm afraid not. >> reporter: most of what you saw in that story was filmed by marwan and his son. his resolve is simply astonishing. and tomorrow morning, norah, he's going to wake up and carry on reporting. >> norah: elizabeth palmer

and marwan al-ghoul, thank you very much. should homemade guns from kits be regulated like other firearms? the supreme court drops a big hint on how it may rule. that's next. start to slow down. sometimes it can but did you know prevagen can help keep your memory sharp? the secret is the powerful ingredient, apoaequorin, originally discovered in jellyfish and found only in prevagen. in a clinical study, prevagen was shown to improve memory in subgroups of individuals who were cognitively normal or mildly impaired. stay sharp and improve your memory with prevagen. prevagen. in stores everywhere without a prescription. on chewy, save 35% and shop all your favorite brands. for any taste, or any diet, at prices you love. delivered fast. for low prices, for life of pets, there's chewy. when my hair started to thin, i thought,

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and enjoy more good days. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,... problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. can't afford your medication? astrazeneca may be able to help. ask your doctor about breztri for copd. hon', take airborne! it has 7 key nutrients to help fill those holes your immune system may have. what holes? [screams] new airborne. 7 immune supporting nutrients. our most complete support yet. >> norah: today the supreme court appeared likely to uphold the biden administration's regulations on so-called ghost guns. these are homemade weapons that are being used in a growing number of crimes. for more now from cbs's jan crawford. >> this one is a ghost gun.

>> reporter: they don't look any different. >> they're not. they shoot the same rounds. they have the same effect. >> reporter: police say untraceable ghost guns made from build-it-yourself kits sold online without background checks or showing proof of age led to an explosion in crime. >> it's made it more dangerous for everyone. >> reporter: tuesday, the supreme court appeared sympathetic, indicating it would sign off on the biden administration's efforts to regulate them, by requiring serial numbers and background checks. in lively arguments, the justices suggested gun parts sold in easy-to-assemble kits are, for all accounts and purposes, a gun. >> it's not terribly difficult for someone to do this. >> reporter: the justices used some creative hypotheticals to explore what it would take for separate gun parts to be considered a lethal weapon. >> i want to stick with the definition of weapon. here's a blank pad. and here's a pen. all right? is this a grocery list? >> i don't think that that's

a grocery list, but the reason for that is because there are a lot of things you could use those products for to create something other than a grocery list. >> reporter: over the past six years, police have seen a 1500% increase in the ghost guns they have recovered, many from teens. three years ago, guy boyd went from football games and hanging out with friends to fighting for his life. >> i don't remember much from that night, but i mean, the aftereffects, i'm a chronic epileptic now because i have a bullet fragment in my brain that causes me to have seizures. >> reporter: boyd was shot allegedly by a teenage friend fooling around with a ghost gun he bought online. >> i want people to see the effects and see what happens after. >> reporter: now the industry argues that the biden administration and the atf, they just don't have the authority to regulate ghost guns under existing laws. they say that's a job for congress, that congress should have to pass a new law. but the justices sure seem to

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♪ ♪ >> norah: it may be hard to believe that those old-school political yard signs can have an impact in the internet age, but in tonight's "eye on america," cbs's major garrett explains that they do, especially in omaha, nebraska. >> reporter: in the heart of this omaha neighborhood, a sea of blue dots. what does the dot mean to you? >> you know, the first and foremost thing it represented was vote. >> reporter: that is jason brown. he thought of the blue dot late this summer and began spray painting them one at a time. >> a few hundred went to 400 went to a thousand went to 1800. >> thank you for all your effort. >> reporter: neighbors swiftly took notice and asked for their own, which jason and his wife, ruth, happily supplied. people would just come up to your house? >> we had no campaign. no publicity or anything.

it was just happening word-of-mouth. >> reporter: does it help that there's no name? >> we debated it. literally that first one. >> should we put "vote" across it? or something? quickly, within 30 seconds, we're like, let's just leave it a blue dot. >> reporter: across the street, tim conn saw an opportunity to accelerate production. his wife, karen, a vital cog in the blue dot machinery. >> the ultimate goal is elect kamala harris and tim walz. >> reporter: nebraska awards some electoral votes by congressional district. omaha is at the heart of the state's second district. and that means if vice president harris wins there, she will carry one electoral vote from deeply red nebraska. literally a blue dot. what does the reaction, meaning the enthusiasm for this particular blue dot, signify to you? >> we are not complacent in this election. >> reporter: one blue dot has become a blue washing of the entire area.

more than 10,000 signs and new events added daily. >> hey, i've been looking for these blue dots. >> reporter: these signs occupy a grand visual tradition in american politics. some date back to the mid-19th century and litter any available patch of grass during election season. each yard sign can represent anywhere from 6 to 10 votes, which can really add up. recently, former president trump pressured the state legislature to make nebraska winner-take-all. republican senator mike mcdonnell said no. what if your position means, in the end, vice president harris wins by one electoral vote? >> that's democracy. >> reporter: and you're okay with that? >> i'm okay with practicing democracy. >> reporter: about the same time, republican ellen ehlers came up with her own response: a red dot with a yellow flourish of trumpian hair. did this idea grow out of watching the blue dot? >> yes, all of a sudden, they just were multiplying overnight, and we're surrounded, as you can see, and we thought we would

be brave and put a red dot. >> reporter: and one of the things that i find both inspiring and interesting is no one is not getting along. this is okay. >> exactly. yep. yeah, we haven't had any issues. >> people are ready, i think, to move towards a more positive tone in our nation, and i think this has been a very positive tone. >> reporter: there's a phrase you can frequently see on social media: clap back. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: is this a quiet clap back? >> i think that's fair. a quiet one. maybe it fits nebraska nice. >> let me get a hug. [laughter] >> reporter: nice. >> thank you! >> reporter: a sentiment that can be found right in the heart of dots, blue and red. for "eye on america," i'm major garrett in omaha, nebraska. >> norah: now a teenager is working to develop a soap to treat and prevent skin cancer. that story is next. it's tough e

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here in the bay area tonight, the list is out, sfusd parents and students are wondering what is next after learning their school is up for closure. >> sometimes it does not feel like we are the priority at all in processes like these. >> and it is not just san francisco. the south bay school

district that is facing an almost identical crisis because of low enrollment. as people in florida rush to get out of the path of hurricane milton, a specialized team from the bay area is going right into the danger zone. plus, their every day job is to protect the country. as fleet week kicks off military service members engage in a different type of service during their visit to san francisco. this place particularly in san francisco is incredibly exciting. it makes me proud to be an american. this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. good evening. so, parents, students, teachers from two bay area school districts are facing an uncertain future tonight. their districts consider shutting down multiple campuses because of a drop in enrollment. the first big headline is out of san francisco where the district just announced a long-awaited list for the school